


balancing act

by SalazarTipton



Category: Daredevil (TV)
Genre: Blind Character, Fire, Gen, Healing, Hospitals, Major Character Injury
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-12-25
Updated: 2018-12-25
Packaged: 2019-09-27 11:58:06
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,052
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17161592
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/SalazarTipton/pseuds/SalazarTipton
Summary: Not too long ago he thought he didn’t need anyone in his life. Hell, he thought Matt Murdock didn’t deserve a life and that his only purpose was as Daredevil. Now here he is with his two best friends on either side of him, surrounded by love and concern. Maybe letting himself rest and properly heal, for once, wouldn’t do him too much harm.





	balancing act

**Author's Note:**

  * For [siriuslygrednforge](https://archiveofourown.org/users/siriuslygrednforge/gifts).



> happy holidays, sakshi! <3

“Come in,” Matt calls out with his attention remaining on his notes for today’s meeting for the Toomey sisters’ case.

The door swings open, sending a whiff of Karen’s coffee, dry cleaning, freshly printed papers, and eucalyptus shampoo towards him--the mixture of scents that usually permeate throughout the Nelson and Murdock office. In the background, Karen opens a drawer and the rustling of paper on paper follows he notes. His awareness his second nature when he’s away from his apartment, and maybe Foggy’s. The office used to feel comfortable enough to let his guard down, but then their last case earned them some death threats for helping out a family the mafia wasn’t too keen on seeing outside of jail. Matt pulls his focus in a bit to the doorway where Foggy is standing.

“Ready, bud? Shouldn’t take too long. I’m sure the second we step through the doors those slime buckets are going to grovel and plead that we take whatever deal they’ve come up with on the spot,” he says. 

Matt’s lips quirk up in a fast smile and he nods. “Yeah, just double checking some things first.”

After the last time Foggy rode in a taxi with Matt after finding out about his nightly activities, he didn’t take one for two weeks since the whole ride Matt whispered to him about all the horrible smells and all the things that went down in that cab that no detailing job will ever be able to scrub out. Thankfully the office building their meeting the other legal team in is in Hell’s Kitchen and they don’t have to take a cab. Once outside their building, Foggy steps to the side of the door in front of their  _ Nelson & Murdock, Attorneys at Law  _ plaque and holds out his elbow. Matt snakes his hand around his arm just above the elbow and they set off down the street. 

They walk side by side in comfortable silence. Matt feels over prepared and ready to make the attorneys they’re meeting with roll over and beg for mercy. 

It’s been a while since he’s felt so secure in his day-life. Finding a balance between his nightly activities and the responsibilities of Matthew Murdock has been a long time coming (just ask Foggy and Karen, who’ve been the unfortunate souls picking up the slack).

The receptionist pauses when she addresses him and Matt tries not to give away how much he wants to roll his eyes at her. She walks them down the hall to an elevator, speaking a little too loudly in Matt’s direction as if his eyes affected his hearing as well. He feels the fuming irritation underneath Foggy’s skin. They step into the elevator after she insists on pressing the button for the floor for them as if they weren’t capable of such a feet on their own. 

“What an asshole,” Foggy whispers under his breath when the doors ding shut. “I don’t know how you don’t go around punching all the condescending people in the world, seriously.”

Matt lets out a low chuckle. “Don’t think I don’t see through that,  _ counselor _ . You’re just saying that so I’d need your services as my lawyer in all those inevitable court cases.”

Foggy shrugs, brushing their shoulders together for a split second. “Worth a shot and I’m serious. I feel the need to punch people for you. Also, if they really think you’re incapable of existing without falling on your face then what do they think I’m here for in the first place! I can walk down a hallway and click a button too, assface!”

A smile creeps over Matt’s lips until it’s wide enough to bring out the laugh lines around his eyes. Throughout the years of knowing Foggy, he’s always treated Matt like a person first. Yeah, maybe as an asshole-type person (which he knows he deserves), but a person nonetheless, unlike so many others that treat him like a  _ disabled person _ , as if that qualifier affects them. He’s not made of glass, for fuck’s sake! 

By the time the elevator dings again, telling Matt they’ve reached their floor the frustration from before has left them and their game faces are back in place. Maybe somewhere in another part of the building a security guard is judging them from going to giggling kids to serious lawyers in 0.02 seconds which Matt refuses to smirk about. It’s game time.

Foggy leads them to the third room on the left. He pauses for a moment to breath calming breaths to himself before opening the door and telling Matt to go in before him. 

Something is wrong. Matt feels a shift in the air. He pulls his focus off of what Foggy’s saying to find the source of his uneasiness. Nothing downstairs or nearby on the street. He thinks it might just be the unfamiliar building when the building shakes from the force of an explosion. The booming sound sends Matt to the ground with his palms cupping his sensitive ears. 

He knows better than to think his abilities have much use helping with a burning building--which is why he’d never run into one. No matter how flame retardant suit is, he still needs oxygen. The most he could do is tell the emergency crew where people were trapped and how to get to them. Too bad he didn’t have a choice on ending up in this specific fire. He’s not Daredevil right now; he Matt Murdock, attorney at law. Nothing about today was supposed to be dangerous. 

All he can sense around himself is heat, smoke, and burning. He tries to stand up, but his leg won’t move. He pulls at it and notices the pressure holding it in place, pinned against the tile. There’s no pain which he has a feeling isn’t a  _ good thing _ . 

“Foggy!” he yells out, hoping to the Lord above he’s alright. A second ticks by...and another before a groan comes from the doorway. Matt scrambles over to him, kicking the debris that knocked them down in the first place out of his way. His leg feels off. When he connects with the material it gives way more than it should. Matt tucks away that thought to deal with later. 

“I’m okay; I’m fine.  _ What the hell _ -” Foggy cuts himself off when the ceiling above them creaks. Discussing this right now isn’t an option. Matt shoves him towards the door they came through a few moments ago.

His mind wanders to what would have happened to them if they were still in the elevator and his stomach drops. He shakes his head, trying to refocus on their dire situation instead of swirling around possibilities. That can happen all he wants once Foggy’s safe. Matt sends up a silent prayer once they make it to the empty stairwell. He shoves Foggy in front of him, trying to get his friend as far away from the flames as fast as he can manage. They stumble over their feet as they descend--hoping the first floor is clear. Matt pushes past the pain in his lungs from the smoke. 

They burst out of the building in mostly one piece. Before Matt gets a chance to find his bearings, unfamiliar hands are on him, ushering him out into the street away from the danger and towards the emergency vehicles. It clicks that this must be an EMT, not some random bystander grabbing him. 

He opens his mouth to asks them something, but he feels like he’s swimming through his thoughts to find what it was. His leg gives out underneath him and pain shoots through him.

* * *

“Please tell me you have some magic healing mumbo-jumbo like Captain America or something,” Foggy says in way of greeting when Matt blinks awake.

He clears his throat and focuses. Antiseptic, human filth, and death permeate through the air alongside low, steady beeps all around him. Hospital, he thinks. Before he can pull his sense back in, Foggy’s in his space holding something out to him. 

“It’s a glass of water with a fun bendy straw,” he explains, “about two inches in front of your mouth.”

Matt leans forward to take a sip and the pain that woke him up hits him again. His side feels like one, giant bruise. His leg is suspended by some sort of contraption. 

“Careful, dude. You’re pretty banged up.”

“No shit, Foggy. What happened? Something felt off and then--then there was an explosion?” Matt asks, thinking back to how he ended up here. He doesn’t think he’s missing any of his recollection ability, but it still seems like he’s missing too much information. Through the fire and chaos, he couldn’t use his senses properly. He just has vague impressions left of this morning.

“Well, the police are still looking into what caused the whole thing so I’ve got nothing aside from what the media’s guessing at on that front. We were on the fourth floor when whatever-it-was happened. The door fell on us both, breaking your leg. Yeah, fucking breaking it! What were you thinking walking out of there?”

“I didn’t know. Couldn’t feel it and I couldn’t focus on anything besides the smoke. Are you okay?” Matt asks, shifting the conversation away from himself. Foggy’s not in a hospital bed beside him, but that doesn’t mean he’s not hurt. 

“Oh, me? I’m fine. Just fine, Matty. Why wouldn’t I be? I was only just in a building on fire where my best friend was almost killed alongside me. Things are just peachy.”

“You know I didn’t mean--”

Foggy sighs and rubs a hand down his face. “I know,” he relents in a much softer voice. “I know, dude. It’s just been one hell of a day. And this conversation isn’t about me. It’s about you. Nice try.”

Matt shrugs as best he can with moving his tender side. Before Foggy can start in on him again, the door to his room opens after a short knock. A familiar presence floods over Matt, putting him both further at ease and more on edge about being chewed out at the same time. 

“Did a witch curse you or something?” Claire asks when the door swings shut. She’s isn’t looking at Matt. Instead, she’s focusing on the chart she grabbed from the end of his bed. “I can’t imagine how else you’d have such shit luck.”

“Good to see you too,” Matt says.

“Right. Well, congrats, Murdock. You fucked yourself up enough to warrant not only a hospital visit but a whole night here with me. If you so much as think about leaving here before your doctor or I deem it a good idea, I’ll make sure you’re hurt enough to stay. You got me?”

Matt nods, ignore the snort Foggy lets out as he watches Claire berate him. It’s going to be a long night and not even for the usual reasons. No amount of insisting he’s fine is going to get him out of here. 

Claire fluffs his pillows with a little too much vigor. Matt swears she winks at Foggy when she ‘accidentally’ bumps his knee sending a shot of pain down his leg. She ups his pain meds, insisting that he needs them and he doesn’t need to know what’s happening on the first floor  _ that badly _ when he complains about it affecting his senses. 

“I can’t have you smelling me through the walls, weirdo,” she mutters under her breath, knowing full well he could hear her. 

Before she leaves, she tells Foggy to let Matt get some rest soon. The door doesn’t click shut behind her because a heeled foot stops it. 

“This is why I said to just do a Skype meeting,” Karen says. “I can’t let either of you out of my sight, apparently. I demand a raise.”

A genuine smile quirks up the corners of Matt’s lips. Not too long ago he thought he didn’t need anyone in his life. Hell, he thought Matt Murdock didn’t deserve a life and that his only purpose was as Daredevil. Now here he is with his two best friends on either side of him, surrounded by love and concern. Maybe letting himself rest and properly heal, for once, wouldn’t do him too much harm. 

**Author's Note:**

> please let me know what you think in the comments, i'd love to hear your thoughts!
> 
> come find me on [tumblr](http://bialiencowboy.tumblr.com/) or [pillowfort](https://www.pillowfort.io/devildad)!


End file.
